The present invention relates to a character pattern storage and display device for displaying an alphanumeric symbol, stored in a given bit pattern, in the form of a character having a different character width and shifted or non-shifted information of the character pattern for the downward direction.
In a proportional spacing mode, some alphabet letters have a relatively small character width such as, for example, "i" and "l". If these letters of small character width are to be displayed after being taken out from a memory in which these letters are stored as patterned in respective frames of a given size, they tend to result in the increased space between one character of a small character width and the neighboring character of a normal character width. Moreover, when it comes to such letters as "j", "p" and "q", they have to be shifted downwards in a longitudinal direction relative to the base line common to all other alphabet letters except for "g", "j", "p", "q" and "y".
Hitherto, a method is known for providing information indicative of the necessity of the downward shift of some characters at the time they are to be stored. However, this known method requires the use of a complicated and expensive device to practice it because a display device capable of displaying characters of different character width requires complicated processing procedures such as the specification of a particular character width for a certain character, and that of the position at which a certain character is to be displayed.